CMT Blog: Archive

So, a lot of people might have week-long birthday celebrations. However, I have month-long birthday celebrations (my birthday is Dec 7) and I try to involve as many of my friends as possible in these festivities. The way I love celebrating is doing things I love. The thing I love most is playing shows with people I like and seeing live music. My friend Penny is also a December baby, so we kicked off the party this past weekend with her birthday celebration. We were playing in East Texas this last weekend, so Thursday, we drove over to Monroe, La., a day early to see Jack Ingram and Dierks Bentley. Y’all, if you have not seen this yet, please go. It was awesome. Jack Ingram’s band ROCKS! He has one of my favorite drummers ever, Pete Coatney. His band is so tight and they are great to watch live. I had never seen Dierks play live before but he “gets” his crowd, and is a very humble person. It was so cool to see the joy on his face when he said, “WOW, this is so awesome that so many of you came out to see me.” He meant it, too. A lot of performers get complacent with the monotony of the live shows, but his excitement was bubbling over and it was like it was his first show. It was so cool.

The next day, we met the band over in Tyler, Texas (by my hometown of Longview) to play a show with Kevin Fowler. Y’all, I’m still laughing about that night. At the end of the show, when we were both at our respective tables signing autographs, he yells, “Hey, Sunny, come over here and meet some of my fans.” So, I go over with him behind his table and every time he signs something, he tosses it to me to sign then asks his fan if they’ve met me yet. It was a very cool gesture and we definitely made some new fans because of that, because otherwise, they might’ve just gone to his table and not mine. Anyway, this is East Texas, y’all. We’re all one big happy family there, so it was no surprise that I was signing some of the stuff I was signing… I’ll leave it at this: I signed skin! A lot of skin! Bar none, he’s the best performer out there in my opinion. He puts on the craziest, rockinest, wildest shows I’ve seen. His band has more energy than any other band out there and every song turns into a sing-along. I hope we get to play with him again very soon!! I’m still laughing at that night!

Then, Saturday, we went to Nacogdoches, Texas, to play with Pat Green and Stoney LaRue, who are both great as well. Their fans, however, are CRAZY! We had a ball with that crowd! I didn’t know how they would react to our brand of country music, but they LOVED IT! It’s always cool to play shows when the fans are open to whoever is opening. We hung out and had some beers with the bands before we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep…. Zzzzzzzz…. I got up on Sunday morning to head to Fort Worth, Texas, to play with my new favorite singer-songwriter-friend, Adam Hood. We did a song swap in Fort Worth, and then they headed to Austin with us to chill and get some Mexican food. YEAH, BABY! Then, some more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… and my birthday isn’t even till next Friday. OH BOY!